“When Marshal Lugal learns how Kor and his trained assassins have treated a general officer, you’ll all be exterminated!” Runstet bellowed. “And you! An officer yourself. A disgrace to the uniform you wear!”
“I have my duty,” Odal said. “And I am trying to spare you some of the more unpleasant methods of interrogation.”
As Odal spoke, the mist around them dissolved and they were standing in a spacious living room. Sunlight streamed through the open patio doors. Nearly a dozen men in army uniforms sat on the couches. But they were silent, unmoving.
“Now then,” said Odal, “you will show me exactly what happened. Every word and gesture, every facial expression.”
“Never!”
“That in itself is an admission of guilt,” Odal snapped. “You have been plotting against the Leader; you and a number of others of the general staff.”
“I will not incriminate other men,” Runstet said stubbornly. “You can kill me, but… .”
“We can kill your wife and children, too,” Odal said softly.
The General’s mouth popped open and Odal could feel the panic flash through him. “You wouldn’t dare! Not even Kanus himself would. …”
“Accidents happen,” said Odal. “As far as the rest of Kerak is concerned, you are hospitalized with a mental breakdown. Your despondent wife might take her own life, or your entire family could die in a crash while on their way to the hospital to see you.”
Runstet seemed to crumple. He did not physically move or say a word, but his entire body seemed to soften, to sag. Behind him, one of the generals stirred to life. He leaned forward, took a cigar from the humidor on the low table before him, and said:
“When we’re ready to attack the Acquatainians, just how far can we trust Kanus to allow the army to operate without political interference?”
“I simply don’t understand what came over me,” Leoh said to Spencer and Hector. “I never let my temper get the better of me.”
They were standing in the former lecture hall that housed the grotesque bulk of the dueling machine. No one else had entered yet; the duel with Ponte was still an hour away.
“Come now, Albert,” said Spencer. “If that whining little politician had spoken to me the way he did to you, I’d have been tempted to hit him there and then.”
Leoh shrugged.
“These Acquatainians are an emotional lot,” Spencer went on. “Frankly, I’m glad to be leaving.”
“When will you go?”
“As soon as this silly duel is finished. It’s quite clear that Martine is unwilling to accept any support from the Commonwealth. My presence here is merely aggravating him and his people.”
Hector spoke for the first time. “That means there’ll be war between Acquatainia and Kerak.” He said it quietly, his eyes gazing off into space, as though he were talking to himself.
“Both sides want war,” Spencer said.
“Stupidity,” muttered Leoh.
“Pride,” Spencer corrected. “The same kind of pride that makes men fight duels.”
Startled, Leoh was about to answer until he saw the grin on Spencer’s leathery face.
The chamber filled slowly. The meditechs who operated the dueling machine came in, a few at a time, and started checking out the machine. There was a new man on the team, sitting at a new console. His equipment monitored the duels and made certain that neither of the duelists was getting telepathic help from outside.
Ponte and his group arrived precisely at the appointed time for the duel. Four newsmen appeared in the press gallery, high above. Leoh suppressed a frown. Surely a duel involving the machine’s inventor should warrant more attention from the networks.
They went through the medical checks, the instructions on using the machine (which Leoh had written), and the agreement that the challenged party would have the first choice of weapons.
“My weapon will be the elementary laws of physics,” Leoh said. “No special instructions will be necessary.”
Ponte’s eyes widened slightly with puzzlement. His seconds glanced at each other. Even the dueling machine’s meditechs looked uncertain. After a heartbeat’s silence, the chief meditech shrugged.
“If there are no objections,” he said, “let us proceed.”
Leoh sat patiently in his booth while the meditechs attached the neurocontacts to his head and torso. Strange, he thought. I’ve operated dueling machines hundreds of times. But this is the first time the other man in the machine is really angry at me. He wants to kill me.